Rene Lumawag, who recently retired from SunStar Davao and now contributes news photos to Mindanao Times, MindaNews and international wire agencies, will receive his diploma, along with Rommel Rebollido, chief of the Philippine News Agency in General Santos City; Luis Liwanag of Xinhua , Alanah Torralba of European Pressphoto Agency’ Danny Pata of Pinoy Weekly; Lyn Rillon of the Philippine Daily Inquirer; freelance photojournalists Maan Leomo and Marnie Dolera; and Japanese national Koichiro Ota of Mainichi Shimbun.
The seven-course Diploma in Photojournalism was developed jointly by ACFJ and the World Press Photo, a media NGO based in The Netherlands, “to raise the bar for photojournalism in Asia by providing comprehensive training to working photojournalists,” the ACFJ said in its website.
The one-year program which uses a blend of online and classroom teaching methods, “aims to provide students a mastery of the photographic, visual and newsgathering principles and skills as well as the ethical foundations of photojournalism.” The curriculum comprises three core courses, three specialized courses and a final output which is a portfolio. Each course takes about two months.
Lumawag and Rebollido are the fifth and sixth Mindanawon, all male, awarded the fellowship
The othern Mindanawon fellows who have graduated from the Diploma in Photojournalism course are MindaNews’ Froilan Gallardo of Cagayan de Oro City, now editor in chief of SunStar Cagayan de Oro and Charlie Saceda, Zamboanga City-based photojournalist of Philippine Star. Gallardo and Saceda were part of the first batch and graduated summer of 2007. In the second batch, former MindaNews reporter Keith Kristoffer Bacongco, co-founder of AKP Images, and Jose Aurelio “Toto” Lozano, now with SunStar Davao, graduated in August 2008.
MindaNews contributor Gandhi Kinjiyo of General Santos City and lawyer Glocelito Jayma of Butuan, formerly with LRC, now in private practice, are still completing the course.
Kinjiyo is the lone Moro fellow.
In the two-year MA Journalism program, three Mindanawon journalists, all female, have been granted fellowships: MindaNews’ Carolyn O. Arguillas who graduated in March 2007 and joined the faculty in the second semester of 2007-2008, teaching “Reporting about Conflict and Peace;” Debbie Uy, editor in chief of Mindanao Insider and Germelina Lacorte, associate editor of davaotoday.com, who are still completing the course. Lacorte also writes for the Philippine Daily Inquirer.
Uy was among eight fellows who received the “Fellowships for Emerging Leaders in Asian Newsroom,” chosen “for their career records as well as their potential to contribute to the development of an independent, responsible and viable press in their communities.”
Lacorte, on the other hand was among four fellows who received “Senior Fellowships,” chosen for their “outstanding careers and their contribution to the growth of the press in their communities.” (MindaNews)